Counterfire members report on the BMA Resident Doctors’ strike action in London and Newcastle in their ongoing dispute over pay restoration, retention and training

Resident Doctors, members of the BMA, took to the picket lines across the country in a dispute over pay restoration, retention and training. The dispute has been ongoing since early 2023 and this is the fifteenth round of industrial action since then.

Previously known as Junior Doctors, they are fighting for an increase that will address the real time pay erosion that amounts to a 21% reduction since 2008. This has had an impact on staff retention, with highly skilled doctors seeking employment outside the NHS leading to increased workloads for those remaining. The current below-inflation offer of 3.5% would mean, if applied annually, that it would take more than 32 years to achieve pay restoration.

Negotiations broke down recently when employers placed additional demands on any deal at the last minute. The dispute could have been settled a long time ago as the money is available, but Wes Streeting is determined to push for backdoor privatisation by starving the NHS of much needed resources. 

That situation is certain to worsen as Prime Minister Starmer rescinded an additional 4,500 speciality training places that had formed part of the current negotiations. A recruitment freeze across NHS Trusts only adds more pain and pressure on remaining staff.

Dr Jack Fletcher, Chair of the BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee, said from the picket line outside St Thomas’ hospital in London, that they had ‘no choice but to take strike action. Right at the last minute, after weeks of constructive negotiations, they [the employers] chose to move the goalposts and place extra demands on any deal.’

This dispute could have been resolved a long time ago and the money was always there. But the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has other ideas as he pushes the ongoing backdoor privatisation of health provision services to the private sector to the tune of millions of pounds.

In Newcastle Resident Doctor BMA members also took to the picket line on Tuesday in this long running dispute over pay restoration and training. Doctors from across the specialties were represented from psychiatry to general medicine.

Pickets told of the shortage of training places, in one case 21 applicants going for one training post, and how the NHS is continuing to lose qualified doctors as they go abroad to find work. In addition, jobs are being lost in the NHS as services are outsourced to the private sector.

Support from the public was audible as cars and pedestrians went past. It felt important that the strikers knew they had support given the barrage of attacks from the media and politicians. The National Education Union (NEU) members were there with their banner, as were Keep our NHS Public North East and the Save South Tyneside Hospital Campaign.

The pickets were outside Newcastle’s main general hospital, the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) where this summer a specialist ward for adults with eating disorders will close. Keep our NHS Public (KoNP) have raised concerns that in addition to the loss of in-patient care this will also result in the loss of day care and support to people who live at home. Outsourcing and cuts go hand in hand with a continuous defunding of the NHS. The issues of NHS cuts, privatisation, jobs and pay restoration for our doctors are all linked.